America Trophy - MAISA Conference Championship

Cornell University Sailing and the Merrill Family Sailing Center host the America Trophy - MAISA Conference Coed Fleet Race Championship. Thank you to Hobart and William Smith Colleges and their coaches Scott Ikle and Dan Thompson for bringing their fleet of boats to Ithaca for the weekend to have two fleets on site! A Division started the day in the Hobart Z420's and B Division started in the Cornell WhiteCap Turbo 420's. The fleets will switch divisions for the start of tomorrows racing.

Prior to racing the MAISA Conference Leadership "Purrington Award" was awarded to Austin Powers '17 from Christopher Newport University. Congratulations!

A 9:45am first start was scheduled and went off in a light 5mph NW breeze. The A race was slow moving until they reached the gate and the breeze freshened up for the B division start. The breeze cooperated until the lunch break ranging from 7-10mph out of the NNW, 6A/6B races were completed. Following lunch the breeze looked promising and seemed to be building/shifting toward the W a bit. Races 7A and 7B were started in great wind but as the races went on the breeze softened and we ultimately went into a postponement ashore from 2pm-5pm. At 5pm the breeze came back in from the NW and we were able to complete 1 more race per division for a total of 8A/8B (16 races). The decision was made to call it for the day just before 6pm.

Thank you to the Cornell sailors & Dan Thompson for assisting with the race management on the water. Thank you to our judges - Colin Keil, Patrick Kana, Claire Riedman, & Dalton Brauer. 1 protest was filed, heard and disallowed. No breakdowns or redress filed.

Race 9A is scheduled for 9:30am and the forecast appears to be calling for a southerly, increasing throughout the day. The top 9 teams will qualify for the National Semi-Finals in Charleston.

Teams were welcomed back to the Merrill Family Sailing Center on Sunday for the final day of racing at the America Trophy. A light/patchy northerly wind gave hope for some racing early on and teams were sent out for a 9:30am first start. The wind quickly built and race 9A got underway in a 12-15mph North Westerly. By the time race 9B was ready to go the breeze had dropped to 7-10mph and during the final run for the B race the breeze had dropped even further, ultimately to nothing and sailors were sent ashore. The wind stayed calm for the next couple hours and the sailors hit the water again at 12pm when a light northerly filled back in, just enough to complete races 10A/10B. The touch and go was tough on the RC and the competitors, but we were making the most of what we had.

Finally after another wind delay, the projected forecasted southerly came through at 2pm and built quickly. With two hours remaining we were able to knock out 5A and 5B races to finish with 15 total in each division for the regatta. The southerly conditions were a nice change from the light northerly winds and sailors were able to stretch their legs in 12-15mph, nice flat water, and pressure shifts.

One protest was filed during the wind delay between UPenn and Hampton, heard, and disallowed. There were a few protest filed at the end of the day, all for the exact same incident involving 5 boats in the final A division race. Thank you to our judges (Colin Keil, Claire Riedman, & Dalton Brauer) for sorting it out, ultimately resulting in two DSQ's, one for Georgetown and another for GW.

Thank you to the RC who spent long hours on the water running the races: Perry Goodman, Thomas Balk, Connor Juckniess, Ethan Andersen, Luke Andersen, Sam Webster, and Dan Thompson. They did a great job throughout the weekend securing 30 total races. 26/30 were W4's and with the rest W3's in the southerly winds.

The All-MAISA Committee gave out a number of awards at the end of the day including the All-MAISA 1st/2nd team skippers, All-MAISA Crews, Sportsman of the year, Coach of the year, and Sailor of the year. Congratulations to all the recipients for their commitment to MAISA and the ICSA this year.

The top 9 teams will move on to represent the conference at the National Championship held in Charleston, SC at the end of May. Congratulations to Hobart and William Smith for winning the America Trophy for the 5th time.

The following chart shows the relative rank of the teams as of the race indicated. Note that the races are ordered by number, then division, which may not represent the order in which the races were actually sailed.

The first place team as of a given race will always be at the top of the chart. The spacing from one team to the next shows relative gains/losses made from one race to the next. You may hover over the data points to display the total score as of that race.